Solert Devops wins the first ‘Tata Social Enterprise Challenge Hackathon’

Mumbai: With an aim to combat lifestyle diseases through technology, the Tata group, recently organised the first ‘Tata Social Enterprise Challenge Hackathon’ on healthcare, at BMS College of Engineering in Bengaluru, this month. The two-day hackathon was a part of the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2017-18, a joint initiative of the Tata group with the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

Solert Devops, the winner of the hackathon challenge, won a cash prize of INR 10,000. They developed a smart posture assessment device with pressure monitoring, designed especially, for patients with bed sores. This winning team was represented by Ankit Awal, Shagun Tuli, Junaid Liyakat Menon and Harshal Khandekar.

Some of the promising ideas came from the teams, Guardians for Health and Vaayu, that developed a device to detect heart attacks at the earliest, and a wearable device to alert diabetic ketoacidosis, respectively. The event was attended by a wide range of participants including students, developers, designers, entrepreneurs and innovators.

The hackathon received over 100 entries of which 35 qualified for the contest. The participants were then divided into eight teams. On the first day, the eight teams received guidance and counsel from mentors from impact-fund, academia, corporate and social enterprises. The teams presented their ideas and prototypes to a panel of jury members on the second day.

Mr. Gaurav Kapoor, Head INVENT, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park said, “It was a motley of students, doctors, designers and coders which helped bring in a varied perspective and their synergies threw up amazing solutions for some lifestyle diseases”.

Mr. Atul Agrawal, Sr. Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Tata Services said, “A new dimension has been added to the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge with the introduction of the hackathon this year. We are pleased with the response and thank all the jury members, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park and IbHubs for the efforts, and wish all the very best to the participants for continuing to seek innovative solutions.”

This hackathon is being conducted in select cities to tap the youth for their ideas and solutions in the Indian social entrepreneurship eco-system. The event was organized by the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in association with the Tata group and IbHubs.